We learn this morning from the San Jose Mercury’s Karen D’ Souza that the show’s Season 5 champ and leader of the Soul Patrol, whose record sales have been languishing, has joined the national tour of “Grease,” which is coming to San Francisco next year. He’ll play the Frankie Avalon role of Teen Angel.

But will fans still be hopelessly devoted to him?

Meanwhile, People magazine tells us that the end of the “American Idol” summer tour has left David Archuleta all sad, yet excited to see what the future brings. “It was one of the greatest times of my life,” he said.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/09/15/american-idoler-taylor-hicks-slides-into-grease/

In other “Idol” news, Billboard reports that David Cook will have his first album out on Nov. 18. Cook also has a new networking website just up today. To check it out, click here.

David Cook may have won the “American Idol” war, but his rival David Archuleta has just won a significant chart-topping battle.

Archuleta’s “Crush” has debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 singles chart, besting the No. 3 opening of Cook’s “The Time of My Life” in June. Guess those little girls and older women are still fawning over the 17-year-old.

“Crush” is the biggest debut by an Idol contestant for a song never performed on the show. For more on Archie’s success, click here.

And all that was for the person inside the Pop-Tart outfit and his accompanying band of mascots, who were firing T-shirts out of air guns prior to the start of the show.

The capacity crowd was definitely excited for the local stop of the 2008 American Idols Live! Tour (presented by Pop-Tarts). The majority of that enthusiasm on Tuesday night (July 8th) at the HP Pavilion in San Jose was clearly focused on the two Davids _ this past seasonâ€™s runner-up, David Archuleta, and eventual champion, David Cook.

Musically speaking, the second-place finisher came out on top this time around. Archuleta was the more impressive of the two Davids in concert _ however, thatâ€™s not saying much. Indeed, Cook was arguably the weakest participant in the cast, which featured the top 10 finalists of 2008.Continue Reading →

When our page designer at the newspaper produced a boxing motif for today’s preview of the “American Idol” finals, little did I know that the producers would actually have David “Sugarfoot” Cook and David “Baby Face” Archuleta come out in gaudy boxing robes and gloves and do the whole Michael Buffer, let’s get ready to ruuuuuuummble thing. Somewhat of a big overblown cliche, wasn’t it? OK, I’ll shut up and let our Readers Judging Panel take the floor one last time:

Rob Miller, 46, Oakland
That was the most lame introduction ever. Followed by 10 minutes of utter b.s. We don’t start until about 8:15. Who’s “brilliant” idea was this? Someone needs to be fired over this crap.Cook — “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” I didn’t think it was all that. He’s a solid performer. He didn’t mess it up. Nothing wrong with it.Archuleta — “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” They gave Archuleta a more “exciting” (for lack of a better word) arrangement. Yes, he nailed it.

Cook — Some song that I didn’t pick up the name of. Again, perfectly fine, but not a stand-out performance. Archie probably wins based on this song. (Not that it really matters.) That song was prototypical David Cook, exactly what I’d expect to hear on his album. And that’s not a bad thing. Would someone please kill Jim Lampley now?Archuleta — I don’t know what it wazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. A typical Archie performance. Boring song, flawlessly executed. Well, I thought I did hear a couple of out of tune spots. As Fran has often lamented this entire season, where are the goosebump moments? For crying out loud, even Katharine McPhee managed to pull one of those out from time to time.

Cook — “The World I Know (Collective Soul)” I really liked this song. I didn’t know it. It wasn’t goosebumps, but it got close. Part of me thinks that pulling out “Hello” or “Billy Jean “would be a bit of a cop-out. His best of the night I felt.Archuleta — “Imagine.” Before he even sings, I’ll say this is smart, pulling out one of the few really great moments of the season for another go. Yeah, he sang it fine, just like he did before. What’s more boring than doing the same song again?

Sticking with their stupid paradigm, I’d give the first two rounds to Archie but the last one to Cook. America will vote for Archie, probably 60/40, but we’ll never know.

Danny Wallace, 28, Antioch
They need to let Mr. Buffer join the crew and do that before every show. Sugarfoot vs. Babyface is great. They all should have nicknames. Official nicknames, not just the ones we’ve been giving them. Best part of the intro, besides Archie trying to look tough, was seeing the “Title you’re going for” while they showed Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Daughtry. So two winners out of six shown, and a fourth-place finisher. That pretty much sets the tone for the pointlessness of the hour that was. If they’re showing a contestant who came in fourth place as a victor? Then why bother winning?

I enjoyed hearing Ryan call Archie “Archie”. Makes me feel like he’s reading these opinions on the pop culture phenemon. Other than that the performers seemed to know that the final score doesn’t matter at all and were just going through the motions. But the Archie pimping by the judges has me leaning toward him as the victor. Especially with Cook taking on a song he’d never done before as his finish. With Archie repeating his biggest feat of the year, the tweeners will come through for him. I think that it’s gonna be easier for the 11-year-olds to stay up for four hours with their cell phones voting into the night than the Cougars for Cook, though with Cook actually crying like a little girl on stage will totally get him some votes from the kids. They eat that stuff up.

I feel the finale will be our second straight year with a teenage winner. Which means there will be another Idol winner whose album I won’t be purchasing. Only a little bit of Randy left, then I don’t have to hear him for another year. Thanks to the readers for giving us an audience for our thoughts. It’s been a blast.

Neyshia Go, 17, Antioch
I don’t really have much to say. David Cook has been my favorite but I felt like he slacked off a bit tonight. Even though I LOATHE the fact that “Archie,” sang ALL ballads, I have to admit, based on tonight’s performance, he most definitely should win. David Cook just didn’t step it up in my opinion, it was like any other night. Furthermore, I HATED the boxing theme…it looks like the producers are running out of original ideas…

Predicted Win: David Archuleta …even though I think in the industry, I could see Cook selling more records and selling out more shows. He’s a performer…who just didn’t quite meet the mark tonight.

Tyler Maddalon, 10, Danville
I thought tonight’s show was really good. Awesome performances and sorry, Mr. Miller, it was a pretty funny introduction. I thought David Cook put on three different sides of him today. The first was a slow rock and it paid off. It was a great song choice and it was amazing. The second was an upbeat rocker. I thought it was the worst of the night for him, but was still good enough to top David A. “Imagine”. His finale was my favorite. It was an emotional slow rock song. It was awesome, amazing, great, good, excellent, unimaginable — any adjective could describe it.

— David A. also showed a couple different sides tonight. The first (“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”) had a medium-slow tempo that I couldn’t stand. I thought it was corny and I couldn’t comprehend Simon’s Gibberish British words. His next, though, was a heart-stopper. It was truly remarkable. It had the perfect amount of speed to make it non-boring, but still up his alley. I thought it was performed great and was sung even better. His last song was very predictable. All season long the story from me to David A. was he had to sing a faster tempo song that shows off his unbelievable vocals. He did only half of this. It was sung beautifully, but lacked excitement and wasn’t original because he had sung it before. I think David Cook will win if the audience didn’t change their minds. But if they do, David A. has a slight advantage. I want David Cook to win, but I think it’s a true toss-up.

Patti Compton, 76, Rossmoor
Lord, what a mess! Whatever class the show had prior to tonight was lost within the first five minutes in the boxing arena. I can just envision the PR boys hacking it out and coming up with that gargantuan debacle. They should be canned!
— I don’t think David Cook ever had a chance tonight. He was outclassed and outperformed by the 17 year old kid. Much as I thought he would take the trophy, he was doomed when he first stepped out on the stage. His song choices were bad and his delivery worse.
— Archuleta should be proud. He did a fine job!

Maria Sajjad, 22, Concord
To get a sense of how David Cook and David Archuleta performed
tonight, just Youtube their performances from the past 11 weeks. Their vocals and song choices were parallel to their previous performances, and Archuleta even sang “Imagine” for the millionth time in his life. Song choices and vocals were predictable, along with their excruciatingly boring answers to every question they were asked during the hour. In fact, the most interesting part of the night was trying to figure out how long it took producers to come up with the whole “boxing” theme. No wait, scratch that. The most interesting
part of the night was counting how many times David Archuleta cried-to-the-point-of-passing-out on stage.

— It’s going to be close, but the night belonged to Archuleta. He sang beautifully, and really seemed to want the American Idol title (perhaps for his own safety; who knows what his stage dad would do if he doesn’t win). Archuleta will end up winning tomorrow night, though I am very sure that Cook will end up with better album sales in the long run.

-It seems like just yesterday, America was introduced to a balding David Cook, and a slightly nauseating David Archuleta. Look how far they have come!

We all could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble, TiVo space and blog posts. Weeks ago (months?), we knew it would come down to this: the two David’s — Archuleta and Cook — vying for the title of “American Idol.”

Yes, there were no surprises in store for us tonight as the expected happened. Syesha — or Sly-esha as our Maria refers to her — finally ran out of escape routes and was sent packing. That left the stage to Cook and Archuleta, who will go at in the finals next Tuesday. Two guys with the same name, but wildly different styles. So who do you like? Tell us, tell us, please.

Before we learned whoÂ our finalists were, the show took us to the hometown celebrations for the three contestants. Lots of tears. Lots of interesting insights into our singers (Always love that stuff). If David Cook hadn’t already won my support, he certainly did when he honored his former music teacher. A very touching moment.

Oh, and we also got to see a flame-haired Fantasia return to the “Idol” stage to remind us what charisma is all about. I barely understood a word she sang, but there was more personality, electricity and energy in her four-minute performance Â than a typical “Idol” episode this season.

At last, we’re on the brink of the “American Idol” finale. Here’s what our Readers Judging Panelists had to say about last night’s performances:

Neyshia Go, 17, Antioch
The richness of David Archuletaâ€™s tone in his first song by Billy Joel makes him seem like one of the most deserving contestants in the Top 3. I canâ€™t believe that Paula was actually right in choosing David Archuletaâ€™s song. Leave it to a has-been dancer to pick a great song. My one complaint is that David could have changed the arrangement a bit more instead of sticking so close to the original. Davidâ€™s following song by Chris Brown was a definite surprise but I kinda liked it. Although his performance was really awkward and stiff, vocally it wasnâ€™t half bad. However in finality, David Archuleta should never sing the word â€œbooâ€ unless itâ€™s Halloween. â€œLonger Than,â€ is one of the most moving songs I know and I actually felt like David did a pretty good job singing it. Surprise, surprise, it was yet ANOTHER ballad and another boring performance even though he sang it well. Continue Reading →

There was no shocker tonight. “American Idol” voters did the right and honorable thing by dumping the Dreadlocked Wonder, Jason Castro.

Unfortunately, before getting to that bit of news, viewers had to sitt through a bloated hour padded with whimpy rock from Maroon 5, a forgettable performance by Bo Bice and a Ford commercial that had the “Idol” finalists looking utterly ridiculous in bull-fighter’s duds.

As members of our Judging Panel have pointed out, JasonÂ seemed to grow more and moreÂ clueless in recent weeks. On Tuesday, he stunk up the joint with a wince-inducing version of “I Shot the Sheriff” and then butchered some lyrics on “Mr. Tambourine Man.” His whole persona seemed to be captured during the Q&A portion of tonight’s show when he responsed to the query, “What’s the biggest thing you’ve had to overcome?” by saying: “The brainÂ being dead.”

So now we’re down to a final three of David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado. The latterÂ will most likelyÂ need a spectacular performance next week to keep it from being an all-David finale.

If there was ever a clear-cut candidate to send home, it’s Jason Castro. Lord, Mr. Dreadlocks was dreadful, butchering songs by Bob Marley and Bob Dylan — even forgetting some words during the latter performance. But we’ll see what happens on Wednesday. Obviously, we’ve been stunned before. Meanwhile, David Archuleta, a performer maligned by me and some members of our panel, was winning raves for his takes on “Stand By Me” and “Love Me Tender.” Said Simon, “You didn’t beat the competition tonight, you crushed it.” Now we’ll see what our Judging Panel said.Continue Reading →